Heads Or Tails, Groups Push $1 Coin

WASHINGTON — It`s back. Like the monster in a B-movie, the dollar coin could once again rear its head-this time in the form of Christopher Columbus.

Despite the failures of the short-lived Susan B. Anthony coin and the Eisenhower dollar, a nationwide coalition of lawmakers and interest groups is pushing for a change in our nation`s spare change.

Leading the charge are Sen. Alan Dixon (D., Ill.), who plans to use his clout as chairman of the Senate Banking Subcommittee on Consumer and Regulatory Affairs to hold hearings on the proposal, and several Illinois-based trade associations.

They are joined by the Coin Coalition, an array of industry and citizens groups that include everything from brass and copper suppliers and mass-transit associations to coin-laundry operators and visually handicapped groups.

Even Chicago`s Italo-American National Union has joined the movement, since the likeness of Italian explorer Christopher Columbus would grace the proposed coin.

The groups say if the U.S. Treasury introduces the coin correctly, the plan will not only increase efficiency for retailers and consumers and save millions for vending machine operators, but reduce the federal deficit as well.

``Its time to join almost every other industrialized nation that has replaced their dollar equivalent with a coin,`` said Dick Funk of the Chicago- based National Automatic Merchandising Association, a coalition of businesses that use vending machines to sell cigarettes, candy, soft drinks and other items.

``It might not be popular at first, but in the long run, the benefits far outweigh the costs,`` Funk said.

Contrary to popular opinion, a dollar coin would allow the average consumer to carry around less change not more, says Rick Currie, president of Coin Controls, an Elk Grove Village company that makes components for vending machines.

``If you want to park in the Loop for four hours, you can either carry around a dollar worth of change or a dollar coin,`` Currie said. ``The fact is our monetary system hasn`t kept pace with inflation.``

Richard Torp, communications director for the Coin Laundry Association, a Downers Grove-based coalition of over 3,000 laundry businesses, agrees. ``It would help the operators as well as the customers because we would all be dealing with only one coin instead of four,`` he said.

``It`s extremely expensive to collect, validate, count and process a dollar bill compared to the coin,`` adds John Shumacher, vice president of the Chicago-based American Amusement Machine Operators Association, which represents about 1,400 coin-operated entertainment businesses, including juke- box and video-game firms.

William Buetow, manager of treasury at the Chicago Transit Authority, said the latest estimates show the bus and rail system saving $1.3 million annually from a change to the dollar coin because of increased counting efficiency.

Last year the CTA board passed a resolution endorsing the concept.

And proponents of the dollar coin say it would save taxpayers millions annually. According to James Benfield, executive director of the Coin Coalition, the Washington-based umbrella group for dollar coin advocates, the government would save $120 million a year from the change because coins last about 20 years longer than paper money and cost less to make.

Earnings would also result from the concept of ``seigniorage,`` or the profits arising from the difference between the cost of minting a coin and its face value. A quarter, for example, costs only 2.5 cents to make-10 percent of its street value.

If new dollar coins were produced, according to Benfield, the public would hoard the old and new versions, an action akin to buying U.S. Treasury bonds that are never cashed in.

But despite the alleged benefits, Benfield admits the legislation faces an uphill battle.

``The problem is we tried it before and the coins were horribly designed- people confused them with quarters,`` Benfield said, referring to the short-lived Susan B. Anthony coin. ``Now we have a hard time convincing people that, if done right, it would be much more convenient.``

The dollar coin proposal`s success also has been hindered by the opposition of Rep. Frank Annunzio (D., Ill.), former chairman of the House Banking and Finance Subcommittee on Consumer Affairs and Coinage, according to Funk.

``Many of the House heavyweights like (Rep. Dan) Rostenkowski (D., Ill.)

look to (Annunzio) as the expert on the issue and won`t sign off unless he does,`` Funk said.

A spokesman for Annunzio said the congressman did not object to a dollar coin but rather to a provision in the legislation requiring the dollar bill be removed from circulation.

But Funk maintains that eliminating this provision would ensure that a new dollar coin would suffer the same fate as the Susan B. Anthony.

``Retailers will never carry two forms of the same denomination; that is why the Susan B. failed,`` Funk said. ``And if retailers don`t give them back as change, they will not circulate among the general public.``